


Family Failings

by Tammany



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Character Study, Crack, Gen, Speculation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-04
Updated: 2014-01-04
Packaged: 2018-01-07 09:37:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1118345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tammany/pseuds/Tammany
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yes. I continue to fuss and fret at possible games to come. This one, though, is very crack. Fun. Weird. Crack nonetheless....<br/>Mycroft, Sherlock, discussing saving Mycroft's One Friend from Charles Augustus Magnussen.</p><p>Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. I am a very naughty fic writer.  XD</p>
            </blockquote>





	Family Failings

“I can’t believe you were that obvious," Sherlock drawled, caught between smug revenge and actual annoyance. "A vain, lonely man. A woman who poses no sexual threat to him—but can challenge his mind like no other. An alliance with risks… A classic lure, blending the illusion of safety, the bliss of shared genius, and the whiff of armchair danger at a discreet distance. And you walked right into it.”

Mycroft glared at Sherlock with an embattled distress Sherlock had never seen in his brother before. “It’s not like I was the first down that path, brother-dear. It was an acceptable risk. And we had the upper hand over her, thanks to you.”

“The whip hand, you mean?” Sherlock smirked. “No. I think not. That was always her specialty, wasn’t it? Did that appeal, too?”

Mycroft grimaced, clearly repelled. “Good God, no. Her perversions are her own. She was an ally. An…equal.”

“A weakness.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“Magnussen has his own methods, Sherlock. She didn't get caught by her own deceit. Irene… Miss Adler didn’t betray me. That much I’ve been able to establish.”

“You must be honored, holding such a unique place in her world. A man she’s never betrayed! But, then...why bother?”

“Oh, dear. I’m supposed to cringe at that? Look at the obvious. If I’m honored, it’s only the same honor I confer: that of equals. Our...similar leanings leave us free to indulge in one singular relationship between equals, with nothing to confuse the issue.”

“Equals? And I thought that was my role. Once.”

"With me? Or with her?"

"Either." Sherlock scrambled, suddenly on the defensive. "Both. Does it matter?"

Mycroft shrugged and said, too softly, “I am the smart one, Sherlock. And she beat you—fair and square.”

“So this is a competition between us, too? Do they never end, Mycroft?”

 “Not a competition, Sherlock," Mycroft looked away from his brother, as people look away from those in mourning, ashamed to catch them in their weakness. "To be a competition—you have to have been in the game in the first place. You weren’t. Not this game.”

“So. Irene Adler. She is your idea of a ‘friend’?”

Mycroft sat wearily in John’s old, battered armchair, and put his face in his hands. “Is it so much worse than you taking your pets out for a run, Sherlock? Really? You have affection—but not equality. I have equality, but no affection. Some would say we both lose.”

“No affection? Then why you want to save her from a man who’s just a few levels of magnitude up the shark spectrum?”

Mycroft looked up at him, then, and said sadly, “We’re only halfway through our game of i-Go. Two years we’ve been playing, and neither has won. Do you have any idea—any idea—how I cherish that fact?”

Sherlock sighed, and sat opposite his brother. Slowly, quietly, he said, “Unfortunately, yes. I do.” He shook his head. “Look at us both. Neither one able to let her go, neither ready to keep her.”

“She doesn’t want to be kept. Not like that. She’s as feral as we are, Sherlock. It’s not just the two of us—it’s the three of us. Help me save her.”

Sherlock snorted, then, amused. “Ah, well. I might as well. I appear to be getting plenty of experience in the role, don’t I?”

“Legwork. It’s how little brothers justify their existence.”

Sherlock was not amused…


End file.
